So you are likely looking at a deployment involving XenApp, XenDesktop, XenServer, and Provisioning Services. XenApp provides access to hosted applications. XenDesktop provides access to hosted desktops. XenServer is a hypervisor to run virtual machines (server or desktop). Provisioning Services is utilized to stream an operating system "Golden Image" to multiple machines (physical or virtual).

So the first question that needs to be asked is why are you looking at virtual desktops? Have you considered straight XenApp or Remote Desktop Services? VDI does offer a few benefits, though you should ensure your business needs can't first be met by using a traditional SBC approach.

There is quite a bit needed to stand up a XenDesktop environment. Let's run through it briefly:

XenDesktop requires an operating system license for each desktop. There is a server component (Delivery Controller) that requires a server operating system license.

XenServer is free (for a stripped down version), though if you want other features, such as dynamic memory, you'll want to buy a license. If you purchase XenDesktop Platinum you'll get these licenses as well.

Provisioning Services licenses come with XenDesktop Platinum. You'll also need server operating system licenses for each PVS server you want (minimum two recommended).

HARDWARE

XenApp can run physical or virtual. If you are stuck with a 32 bit environment then I recommend virtual. If you can go full 64 bit then you might benefit from physical.

XenDesktop will need a Delivery Controller. Preferably two. These can be virtual servers.

Top line overview for virtualizatio:
- you can typically get 4-6 servers per processor core
- so for your 8 servers, you need two cores
- now for your users in a XenApp virtualized environment, you can get at most 25 users per virtualized OS.
-doing the math, that puts you at roughly 30 servers for XenApp.
-next you need server with dual quad core procs.
+ doing the math that is roughly for physical host is approx 10 servers plus 1 or two for failover.

RDS Cals = # of users in your environment.
Windows Server Licenses = RDS CALs unless you are using machine CALs and not user CALs
Get Xenapp licenses because it is concurrent usage9unless they changed this) By doing this you only need to purchase a percentage of your user base un less every user works remotely 100% of the time.

We have 1200 users with maximum of 500 concurrent connections. We want to allow users to acccess the new Windows 7 as a virtualised desktop therefore, do we need 500 x Windows 7 Pro licenses? Would we still need RDS CALs? I guess not and rather need server user CALs?

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Also am trying to look for a dell SAN.. can someone give me an idea on how much space do I need to provision to host 500 simultaneous desktops? I would like to allocate 30GB per desktop for the OS and software installation files therefore, does this mean it's 30GB x 500? Which is way too much space requirement..

The number of XenDeskto licenses aren't tied to XenServer licenses. You can run as many VMs as your hardware will allow on XenServer.

If you are using Provisioning Services with a Standard vDisk then you only need a single Golden Image large enough to hold the OS and applications. Of course you'll want some space for backups of that image. You'll also need some space to store the Write Cache.

Nappy d is on target with the consultant suggestion. You are getting in to design questions that are best answered with the engagement of a consultant. There really is quite a bit to consider.

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